Video: Introducing the 1978 Ford Fairmont Futura

Meet the Fairmont Futura, Ford’s downsized and affordable personal luxury coupe for 1978.
In the original Ford commercial spot below, the all-new 1978 Fairmont Futura is given a dramatic intro borrowed directly from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, including the grandiose Richard Wagner musical score. And why not? The Fairmont series was a big step for the Dearborn motor company—the automaker’s first downsized intermediate sedan after a long (and fairly prosperous) line of ever-growing mid-sized models. The Fairmont, we note, also happens to be the first production application of Ford’s soundly engineered Fox rear-drive chassis, which would be next put to good use as the platform for the successful 1979-93 Mustang.
As the personal luxury coupe in the Fairmont line, the Futura received the same distinctive roof and greenhouse treatment as its big brother, the seventh-generation Ford Thunderbird introduced in ’77: Wide, thick B pillars and trapezoid rear quarter glass. (The T-Bird added a small opera glass to the B pillar.) Ford actually played up the family resemblance with an ad campaign titled “Lightning Strikes Twice!” that pictured both the Futura and Thunderbird and listed the base price of each: $4068 vs. $5448. Then or now, that’s an unorthodox approach to automotive marketing. Video follows.

​Article courtesy of Mac's Motor City Garage.